Archive of posts from Saba-News.com Archive Saba News
The Daily Herald reports that the granting of the new concession for the postal services in the Caribbean Netherlands to Flamingo Services has raised some questions in the Dutch Labour Party PvdA in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. Members of Parliament (MPs) Roelof van Laar and Mei Li Vos, both of the PvdA, submitted written questions on Friday to Dutch Ministers Henk Kamp (Economic Affairs) and Ronald Plasterk (Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations) in an effort to get clarity on the decision of the Dutch government regarding the postal services for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
The Dutch government announced earlier this week that Flamingo Communications NV had been granted a 10-year concession per January 1, 2014. Van Laar and Vos questioned why government had elected a company that “has no experience with postal services.”
Flamingo Communications NV is a local company on Bonaire that will expand its current activities with postal services. The services will be rendered under the name Flamingo Express Dutch Caribbean, it was stated in a press release sent out by the Dutch government on October 30. “Which guarantees are there to ensure that this time the agreements that have been made will be kept,” asked the MP’s, obviously referring to current concession holder NPNA from Curaçao, whose concession ends at the end of this year.
The MPs wanted to know what instruments could be utilised if the new concession holder didn’t stick to the conditions of the agreement. Van Laar and Vos also sought clarity on the price increase of the local postal tariff to US $0.88. They asked the ministers to explain the reasons for this increase and whether they deemed this price hike to be acceptable.
According to the Dutch government, the new concession takes into account the decreasing postal volumes that put a strain on the productivity of the postal services.
The MPs further inquired about the plans of the Executive Councils of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba to formalise the street names and house numbers in a government decision and inform residents and owners of this decision.
In conclusion, the MPs asked to be informed about the plans to introduce postal codes on the islands to facilitate local residents when ordering goods online at web shops.